Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Freddie Gavita: Transient

2

Freddie Gavita: Transient

By

View read count
Freddie Gavita: Transient
Freddie Gavita graduated from London's Royal Academy of Music in 2008 after having taken a degree there in jazz trumpet under the watchful eye of Nick Smart, the Academy's Head of Jazz and a virtuoso trumpet player himself. Gavita is increasingly in demand both in big bands (including Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra) and small groups alike (including The Ronnie Scott's Club Quintet). He's also played with Peter Erskine, Curtis Stigers and Gregory Porter to name just a few. Born in 1985 in Norwich, England, Gavita took an early interest in music playing in his school's jazz band and later in the Norwich Students' Jazz Orchestra. Transient is Gavita's long-anticipated and very welcome debut album.

The set opens with "Strimming The Ham," a breezy modal piece redolent of classic sixties Blue Note Herbie Hancock courtesy of Tom Cawley's irresistible piano. Dedicated to the memory of the late British pianist Richard Turner, "Turneround" is arguably the strongest piece on the album, adorned with a fiercely memorable vamp. The dulcet opening to "Beloved" is vaguely reminiscent of the famous largo section of Antonín Dvořák's 9th (New World) Symphony before transitioning into a gentle Kenny Wheeler-esque ballad.

The aptly named "Sprezzatura"—an Italian word meaning an assumed air of effortlessness—is a perfect medium in which to demonstrate Gavita's chops which are displayed with insouciant panache. Numbers such as "Lion-O" replete with labyrinthine themes and tricky time signatures contrast with more easy-going ones such as the swinging "Pull Yours Socks." Even "The Buffalo Trace," a bluesy finale, offers yet another example of this trumpeter's immeasurable versatility. Gavita's prodigious talent, both in terms of his playing and composing, is patently obvious and as witnessed by this engaging first outing, his star is most definitely in the ascendancy.

Track Listing

Strimming The Ham; Turneround; Beloved; Yearning; Sprezzatura; The Vow; Lion-O; Iverson Oddity; Pull Your Socks; The Buffalo Trace.

Personnel

Freddie Gavita: trumpet, flugelhorn; Tom Cawley: piano; Calum Gourlay: bass; James Maddren: drums.

Album information

Title: Transient | Year Released: 2017 | Record Label: Froggy Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Freddie Gavita Concerts


Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.